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Policies and legislation
There is no separate State
Forest policy enunciated in Tripura.
National Forest Policy (NFP), 1988 has been adopted in the State which have
following salient objectives:
Maintenance of environmental
stability through preservation and restoration of ecological balance.
Conserving the natural heritage by
preserving the natural forests, biological diversity and genetic resources
of the country.
Increasing substantially the
forest/tree cover through massive afforestation under social forestry
programmes.
Increasing the productivity of the
forests to meet essential national needs.
Meeting the requirements of fuel
wood, fodder, minor forest produce & small timber of the rural and
tribal population, and safeguarding the customary rights and concessions of
these people.
Containing shifting cultivation by
rehabilitation/development of jhumia and also ensuring rehabilitation of
affected areas.
Rigths and concessions including
grazing inside the forests to be linked with carrying capacity, and holders
of customary rights and concessions in forests to identify themselves with
protection and development of forests.
Creating a massive peoples’ movement
with the involvement of educational institutions, farmers, KVKs, and other
institutions for achieving the objectives of the policy and to minimize
pressure on existing forests.
State bamboo Policy
State Bamboo Policy has been
formulated to develop bamboo sector in the State through a market-led
community-based utilization, development and conservation of the resource
in forest and farm areas. It envisages to:
Provide an impetus to conservation;
Develop the resource, both in forest
and farm areas through scientific means such as tissue culture, planned
cultivation and improved management using community based initiatives
amongst other practices;
Improve the utilization of bamboo
establishing small and large enterprises in the processes; and
Develop effective marketing for the
bamboo-based products.
State Afforestation Policy
State afforestation Policy under
broad framework of National Forest Policy (NFP), envisages effective
rehabilitation of degraded forests and extending tree cover beyond
traditional forest areas through suitable multi-product afforestation
models to conserve biodiversity and to satisfy local people’s need and use.
Joint forestry planning and management arrangements involving local
communities would be integral part of all afforestation efforts to ensure
replication of low cost afforestation models over vast areas and to ensure
enhanced productivity of multiuse products from existing forests.
Forest Protection
To give a fillip to forest
protection, to ensure appropriate forest legislation, rules, codes,
procedures, standing instructions and directives have been formulated. The
Indian Forest
Act, 1927, Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 (with latest amendment), Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Environment
(Protection) Act, 1972 are in operation in the State. To check illicit
felling, Indian
Forest Act, 1927 has been amended from time to
time and some important amendments made in the
Indian Forest
Act, 1927 and the relevant Rules there under are shown below.
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Amendment
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Scope
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The
Indian Forest
(Tripura Amendment) Act, 1984
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Insertion of section 51-A: power
to regulate manufacture and preparation of articles based on forest
produce.
Substitution of words “carts or
cattle” with “carts, vehicle or cattle”.
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The
Indian Forest
(Tripura Second Amendment) Act, 1986
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Insertion of section 52-A: power
to confiscate sawmills, tools property so seized including vehicles
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The
Indian Forest
(Tripura Third Amendment) Act, 1990
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Amendment of section 68(3): The
words “Hundred rupees” and the words “Fifty rupees” the words “One
thousand five hundred rupees” and Five thousand rupees respectively shall
be substituted.
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The important rules made under the Indian
Forest Act, 1927 in the State are:
The
Tripura Forest
(Establishment and Regulation of Sawmills and Other Wood Based Industries)
Rule, 1985;
The Tripura-Forest (Timber Marking)
Rule, 1985; and,
The Tripura
Forest Rules, 1952, including Tripura
Forest Transit Rules as amended by
Notification No.F.7(44)/For/FP-90/22795 dated 7.5.1990 and vide
Notification No. F.7 (44)/For/FP-90/7468 dated 24.3.1998.
The Divisional
Forest Officers and Wild Life
Wardens have also been empowered to evict encroachers from Forest land
(R.F. & P.F.) under section 15 of the
Tripura Land
Reforms and Land Records Act, 1960.
State Eco-Tourism Policy
Tripura has immense potential for
eco-tourism development as the state is endowed with vast natural
resources. The eco-tourism in the
state has the potential to provide recreation, income and education to the
people. To realize this potential, a policy has been framed to ensure
integrated development of tourism sector in the state.
The policy envisions tourism
development with culturally compatible, integrated land-use while
minimizing ecological conflicts and involving people for the overall
economic development of the area.
The development strategy involves
welcome (Swagat) and Security (Suraksha) arrangements, infrastructure
development ( Suvidha- samrachna) involving accommodation ,communication,
building of road network, interpretative facilities, wayside amenities. The
information (Soochna) dissemination through information desk, publications,
signage and written materials is to be achieved and awareness (Sachetna)
drive with aggressive marketing, training to staff, local people and
education to visitors is to be carried out. Effective co-ordination
(Samanvaya) for segment conscious eco-tourism development (Samvedansheelta)
shall be the core of strategy. Besides infrastructure, the institutional
development shall also be the endeavor of the policy framework wherein
funds mobilization, capacity building of stakeholders, monitoring
mechanisms shall be strengthened.
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